23 June 2011

One of my many ongoing projects is redecorating our office, as mentioned here. I’ll do a full post on it when it’s finished – or finished enough – but here’s a little piece of the puzzle.

A few weeks ago, I bought a lamp base at Tar-zhay for the office desk. It was inexpensive (under $10) and I liked its lines (oh baby). At the time I couldn’t find a lampshade I liked to pair with it, so used a shade I already owned that was orphaned when the lamp base broke. Which is free! I always love free, right?

Except I sort of hated them together. The narrow, tall, straight shade with the petite curvy lamp was just not working for me, even after I saw a similar shape pairing on some lamps at H to the iz-L. Maybe it’s trendy, or will be soon, but I don’t like it. Still, I suppose I could have lived with it if it weren’t for the glowy flowers inside the shade – one of the reasons I purchased it many years ago. You would think they would go with the graphic rug I purchased for the room a few months ago (from IKEA, click for source):

But somehow they just totally didn't. Trust me, maybe you had to see it in person. The flowery shade cast a yellowish haze on my crisp white canvases and the flowers were like brownish and weird and just looked icky.

Anyway, you get it. I wanted a new lampshade. Back to Tar-zhay with Mr. P. To the SAME collection of lampshades I rejected before.

Unsurprisingly, I still didn’t like any of the other colors or patterns. So I resigned myself to plain white, with a sigh. Then Mr. P said, “But you can make it look however you want!”

People, I am ashamed to say as an avid DIYer, that somehow did not cross my mind. I know! Mr. P was surprised as well.

Mr. P then proceeded to suggest probably twenty different things I could do to transform our new lampshade - as we paid for it, walked to the car, and drove away. This can only mean one thing: I have turned him to the dark side. Welcome, Mr. P.

So here’s the new lampshade. Plain for now, I know, but I think its shape is a better match for the lamp base than the tall flowery one. And NO yellowy-brownish haze!

But it’s not going to stay plain white! Here’s a list of some of the ideas Mr. P had for our new lampshade:

1. Paint a pattern on the outside

2. Paint a design on the inside

3. Cut out a silhouette and glue it to the inside (careful with the fire hazards!)

4. Tie a ribbon around it

5. Trim it with ribbon

6. Trim it with beads

7. Recover it in fabric

8. Recover it in lace

9. Spraypaint a stencil on it (he suggested lace, actually, though I think that would be too thin)

10. Any combination of the above!

Considering that Mr. P is not a shelter-blog addict like me, I’m quite impressed by how decorating creativity has somehow passed to him through osmosis. And as it turns out, many of his ideas are good enough that they’ve already been done! So here’s some photo inspiration (click the photo to go to the source):

Painted damask design with ribbon:

Covered in graphic fabric:

Covered in fabric circles:

Attach fabric flowers:

Painted stripes:

With a flower silhouette inside:

Covered in lace:

Which one will I try? You’ll just have to wait and see! No really, I'm not trying to be dramatic. I honestly don’t know yet. But I definitely have a lot of ideas – thanks, Mr. P!

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I’m a real-life red-headed stepchild, recently transplanted from Nashville, TN to St. Louis, MO, with my husband, Mr. P. Here you can read about my many projects as a real-life scientist pretending to be a designer in my spare time.